


Dirt Washed Away

by ashayamny



Category: 12 Monkeys (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 11:17:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16062005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashayamny/pseuds/ashayamny
Summary: The missing story on how they found themselves on the first scene of 1x13.





	Dirt Washed Away

**Author's Note:**

> This is short and unfortunately unbeta'd but it picks up right after 1x12 "Paradox" because I've always wanted an explanation on how they found themselves on the first scene of 1x13.

Cole followed her through the back entrance of her grandparent's old store and they stopped at the kitchen threshold to assess the damage. There was a dark spot in the middle of the main room and around it they could make out pieces of furniture and books that had been blown up against the walls. The rest of the contents of the shop seemed to have found a new home on the sidewalk outside the equally shattered glass entrance. Cole watched the cold wind blowing on the yellow tape the police must have set up while they were gone, and next to him Cassie hugged herself tighter. He spotted a blue fabric next to his feet and bent over to find the cot he had been using for the past few days was folded in half in a seemingly impossible angle.

"Guess this means I'm staying on the floor tonight."

"Don't be ridiculous." Her voice was closer than he expected which sightly startled him. "Come on up." He made a move to retrieve the bed covers but a hand on his shoulder stopped him, "You've sweated yourself dry in that. Leave it."

The command left no room for arguments, so he straightened himself up from his crouched down position and followed her upstairs.

It was not his first time in this part of the shop but even though he knew the door at the end of the hall was a bathroom, he didn't know where the other two doors led to.

"Through there is the office," Cassie said as she pointed to the closed door closest to him. "Over here is the bedroom." She opened the door on her left and led him inside a room with a double bed in the center, a small dresser on the opposite wall and a few empty suitcases on the floor. She pulled one of the drawers open and handed him a towel. 

Before leaving young James with the Child Protective Services earlier that day, they had picked up some clothes for the future James but he hadn't actually had the chance to have a shower.

"Thank you, Cassie." He thought about elaborating on how he wasn't talking about the towel, but her gentle nod and firm squeeze of his hand were enough to let him know she already knew. She always seemed to know.

Once beneath the steady hot stream, he mused about how he did feel dirty. And in more ways than strictly physical. It had been a long time since he carried the weight of the guilt for ruining the lives of many people who've had the displeasure of crossing paths with him—the most recent being the reason he was still willing to see this mission to the end—but it had formed in him a particular vile feeling of self-loathing to find out he was the one to set in motion the events that lead to his father's death. His father had been a kind man, something he didn't think could ever be said about himself, and it was that fact that somehow gave him solace; there were others to blame as well.

After what felt like hours, he finally reentered the bedroom following the longest shower he ever had—clean water was a scarce resource he wasn't used to wasting—to find Cassie, fully clothed, already fast asleep on the bed. It was a cold night and his initial thought was to wake her up so they could pull back the covers. But as he laid down next to her and started to drift off with an easy he hadn't felt since he got to sleep next to his father when he was still a kid, it came to him that her presence could wash away the dirt that no combination of clean water and fancy soap ever could.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm planning on writing a follow up series to the finale (a challenge i know since it was absolutely perfect) so if anyone would be interested to be my beta hmu!!


End file.
